Our Big Nintendo Direct February 2019 Wishlist: The News We're Expecting

It's a big day for Switch owners, as Nintendo is set to debut a new Direct centered entirely around the console. As per usual, Nintendo has remained fairly tight-lipped about the games we'll see during the Direct, but at 35 minutes long, there should be a lot of new announcements. Even though Nintendo is keeping its cards close to its chest, we can still make a few educated guesses about what to expect during the presentation.

First up is Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which will definitely be making an appearance because Nintendo has announced as much. We can probably expect to see more gameplay footage from the game, and it's likely we'll get a release date too. It's worth noting that Three Houses is the only game Nintendo has confirmed for the Direct, so from here on out, we're moving into the realm of speculation.

Assuming Nintendo follows the same Direct structure it used throughout 2017 and 2018, then this Direct should cover upcoming releases for the first half of 2019. Because of that, it's hard to guess which unreleased games will be included and which ones won't be, as many of them only have vague release windows that span the entire year at the moment.

With that said, there's one upcoming Switch game that actually has a release date, and that's Yoshi's Crafted World. Since it's launching on March 29, you can count on Yoshi's Crafted World getting a lot of screen time during today's presentation.

Other possibilities include both Animal Crossing and Luigi's Mansion 3, which are each set for release at some point this year. We don't have any details at all about Animal Crossing, so if it does indeed make it into today's Direct, it'll be a pretty exciting reveal. The same is true for Luigi's Mansion 3 – all we've received thus far is an announcement trailer that shows off a little bit of gameplay, so that's due for some additional coverage as well.

The biggest question of the day is whether or not we'll see anything on the mainline Pokemon RPG that's coming to Switch this year. It's ultimately hard to say, in part because Nintendo currently has this Pokemon title slated to launch in the latter half of the 2019. If Nintendo does stick to that Direct structure we talked about, that potentially rules out any details on Pokemon.

On the other side of that coin, Pokemon is unquestionably going to be a system seller for the Switch and will most likely the console's biggest release of the year. If there's one game that Nintendo would talk about early, it's definitely this. Keep your fingers crossed, because while chances are admittedly slim, we might still see something about Pokemon before the Direct is over.

Of course, there are existing titles that will probably make an appearance as well, namely Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. At the very least, we'll probably get a release date for Persona 5's Joker, who is Smash Ultimate's first DLC character. Beyond that, there could also be more DLC character reveals as Nintendo and Sora continue to hammer out Ultimate's post-release content schedule.

Finally, we'll probably see plenty about upcoming third-party releases for the Switch. Nintendo of Europe recently put together a presentation full of upcoming indie games, so we may not see many of those, but big third-party titles to watch out for include Mortal Kombat 11, Team Sonic Racing, Super Meat Boy Forever, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, and Shin Megami Tensei V.

Keep in mind that aside from Fire Emblem: Three Kingdoms, we're only guessing at the games that will be featured in today's Direct, and there's no guarantee that any of the titles mentioned here will make an appearance. Today's Nintendo Direct will premiere at 2 p.m PST / 5 p.m EST, and you'll be able to watch it through the video embedded above. While we wait for the Direct to start, head down to the comments section and tell us what you'd like to see during the show.